The business of eating

Eating is maybe become more of a mental challenge for Okaasan.

Not the actual physical act of food in mouth, chew and swallow. No , she still does that very well. Positively stuffs it all down. Huge bowls of ramen and soup curry, mounds of snacks. Huge appetite. We are always amazed at how much she can eat (of course while saying "overeating is bad for you, I once survived 6 months on a glass of water every second Tuesday).

No. What she is finding harder is the business of getting the food from plate to mouth.
She has always dropped a lot of food. And that has really increased this summer. It makes her mealtimes very long, because then her focus switches from the plate to the food on the floor, or her clothes. She is reaching for tissue paper and scrubbing away at stains.
Usually discovering old stains on her clothes and getting sidetracked into scrubbing away at THOSE too with tissue paper. We sometimes have to remind her to come back to the food on the plate :-)

She has never been very communicative while eating. Now that is a total wall of silence. Even if we talk to her directly, she kind of starts and looks up - almost surprised to find us across the table from her.

GREAT concentration on the chopsticks, the bowls and plates. The water glass. The beer glass (if she is lucky!). The tissue.
Japanese people, of course, use chopsticks without thinking. But I notice now Okaasan often looks at her chopsticks, and repositions them in her hand. Sets herself ready for eating, again...and again.
She picks up plates/bowls carefully. Sets them down just so. Brings great focus to every act of eating.

But dropping a lot.

It is probably too early still for a spoon, or some kind of assisted chopstick design. She would think that was strange. But the process of the implements is harder for her.

And. here we go again.
BBQ time approaching.
Okaasan's dreaded day, when the garden is full of people and noise.
I've booked her a hair appointment for 1 pm, so I can feed her lunch and then take her away from the house as the BBQ gets going. Hopefully from the hair salon she will go to the nearest subway entrance and a train will take her downtown for a walk. So she should be away from the house for at least 4 hours....

But I will have to juggle BBQ hosting with Okaasan's needs. Such is life....onwards!

Roses....roses...roses....my garden is FULL of roses!!